Local authorities took part in three seminars earlier this year on managing land use carbon with WLGA’s Climate Change Support Programme (Welsh Government funded), delivered by Netherwood Sustainable Futures.
In the first seminar, officers and elected members explored how reducing and storing land carbon should be integrated across councils’ work in a whole authority approach. Themes discussed included:
- The wide range of habitats owned and supported by councils
- Addressing land carbon in asset management including built assets
- Opportunities through leadership, corporate strategies, and partnerships
The second seminar looked in further depth at habitat management across nine categories of habitat under the control of local authorities, alongside:
- The science of land carbon emissions and storage
- Arenas in which to pursue land carbon outcomes: strategic, institutional, operational and partnership
Officers and elected members came together for the third and final session on land carbon in regeneration and infrastructure. Delegates considered:
- Within councils, who to engage with and on what areas of work
- The added value of land carbon management: decarbonisation, climate risk and biodiversity
- How to influence the business case and delivery
- Carbon as part of flood risk management
It was very encouraging to see over 100 delegates attending over the three seminars. There were rich discussions and attendees left with increased knowledge and ideas for areas of work and approaches to further progress in their councils.
The detailed and illustrated slides from the three seminars, which include the key messages, can be viewed below. Land use resources of WLGA’s Climate Change Support Programme include the Land Use Digital Mapping Tool and ‘Land and Carbon Sequestration and Storage: A guide for Welsh local authorities’. The digital mapping tool enables councils to calculate carbon emissions and storage of existing land, and model emissions (and storage) of land use changes. It is being further developed by DataMapWales following user feedback.
The Land Use guide covers the content of these seminars in detail and includes integration exercises which councils can work through. The resource is currently being refreshed, and we would be pleased to hear from you about your land use work if you can provide a short case study and photographs. Please contact Richard.Lewis@wlga.gov.uk and Dewi.Jones@wlga.gov.uk
The upcoming resource on addressing carbon and biodiversity in business cases will also be of interest. Further details will be available soon.
- Seminar 1 slides: Land carbon management: a whole authority approach
- Seminar 2 slides: Land carbon management: habitat management
- Seminar 3 slides: Land carbon management: regeneration and infrastructure